Moving away from the turn based battles is basically just asking for a spin-off. There's nothing wrong with the battles (although they could speed up the text and animations...). The exploration and linearity is where the games typically fall flat. Gens I and II (yes, I'm going there) were the least linear games in the series. In Gen I, you could complete gyms out of order (the same could be done in Gen II for the 9-16 gyms as well), and Gen II had areas that were worth going out of your way to explore.

My biggest grip with the series in the past couple games has been the terrible camera controls. If you're going 3D, give me control over the camera if the camera isn't going to be fixed. Sun and Moon was pretty bad with how zoomed in and awkwardly angled the camera would be in just about every spot.

For the story, I'm fine with it being pretty barebones. Make me a kid wanting to be champ, the world doesn't need some existential crisis from a Pokemon sucking the continent into some vortex or something.

I like how Sun and Moon attempted at "side quests" where people wanted you to capture a certain Pokemon, but I think they should do more in terms of some non-legendary Pokemon being found in unique locations (think Volcarona, Rotom, and Tyrogue having their own dungeons in previous games).

Wow this is an historical announcement in one of the best years for games in a long time. My mind is everywhere thinking about. My gut feeling is game freak are sitting on the perfect mmo. Everyone online, sharing the same ultimate goal, to be the best. World pvp. Seriously it would be bigger than wow. But I'm on a phone so can't type lol. However, I also think going straight to open world or mmo would deprive us of a home version of a damn good core game. Maybe compatible with 3ds.

Wow this is an historical announcement in one of the best years for games in a long time.

Did nobody see this coming? I mean, it was clear that the Switch is going to replace both the Wii U and 3DS, and since this is Nintendo's only system, it only makes sense Pokemon would show up on the system at some point. That was what the announcement was: ''The next Pokemon game will be on Switch.'' Whoop-dee-doo, bit surprise

@Canadian_Ronin Well, the entire point is the turn-based combat. And I'd argue that it's one of the few franchises that does this well. If you get into the nitty-gritty details of the battle system it becomes a very interesting and complex game. Remove that and the result isn't a Pokemon game anymore.

Of course it'd still be a Pokemon game - franchise's like Final Fantasy have moved away from that style of combat and they are still those franchises.

I don't hate turn based games, but that style of game play has become reserved for smaller, more nitch games like Bravely Default, I am Setsuna etc... the only other big name RPG that I can think of that retains that style of gameplay would be Dragon Quest, and even that game is MUCH more popular in Japan then the rest of the world (where Final Fantasy is more popular). Pokemon isn't that, its a HUGE franchise, arguably Nintendo's biggest. And this is the first time it will be on a HD, home console - I don't think an upgrade to the battle system (and I'm not talking about a completely re-imagining or turning it into an action RPG or anything like that, just want to see a powerful system handle more "stuff" at once) is out of the question or turns the franchise into something different.

Did OOT turn the Zelda series into a different series? Did Metroid Prime? Mario 64?

@Canadian_Ronin Those games you mentioned went from 2D to 3D. Zelda is still an action adventure game. Metroid is still an adventure / shooter, Mario is still a platformer. Doing away with turn-based combat in Pokemon games would like doing away with their types or something like that. I don't think anyone wants that.

Yeah, Pokémon is about going out on an adventure, traveling the lands, visiting neighbourhoods and foreign areas, making friends, capturing interesting and cute battle pets. It's about collecting them all and being the strongest and best there ever was.

If not completely open-world it should at least have some real huge areas for tons of Pokémon to roam and hide, and I'd like if they get away from the top-down to a 3rd person perspective.

Exactly. Exploration is such a major part of the core formula that they really need to put focus on it again.

Personally I liked how they managed 3D gameplay in Poképark Wii 1 & 2, but was bored by Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness.

I do think Pokepark, especially 2, has a lot of potential and I wish they would do more with that gameplay. Probably not a true sequel because people keep thinking it's a crappy mini game compilation, but a spiritual successor that keeps the battling system, goes open world, and feels more like an adventure would be a welcome addition to the series.

The absolute most I could see Pokémon do would be something like what Digimon World does with its combat. You'd have to be a little more in control beyond just "motivating" your 'mon, but I could see that work.

You have a circular-ish area when you enter battle.
Both chosen Pokémon can freely walk around inside that area.
You get your 4 move commands to tell the Pokémon what to do at what time with some kind of cool down or slight delay to prevent someone from spamming ranged moves.
1 or 2 more "moves"/commands for your Pokemon to either try and avoid an attack completely or at least block an incoming attack if it's a slower and/or bulkier Pokémon.

It'd also have to be a lot faster-paced than Digimon because you are going to fight a hell of a lot more in a Pokémon game but I could see something like that work relatively well in the series' context. It'd probably turn out to be a little like in the anime where the trainers basically have 6+ "moves" to shout at their Pokémon as well.

Like I said, that's the absolute most I could see them change about the battles as they are but even then I'm not sure if I would want it outside of a spin-off to test the waters, if enough people would enjoy that.

I think it works well in Digimon World because the things tend to be their own little "people" and not just "animals" like in Pokemon but you also have the heavy focus on raising, and to an extent "educating", your partner and you can't even directly pick attacks for the Digimon if it's not smart/old enough yet. And you obviously don't get into nearly as many battles in Digimon games so I'm not entirely sure how much I'd enjoy a similar system in Pokemon since the games are fairly different from each other, regardless of what the anti-digimon brigade might think of the series.

One thing that crossed my mind is that, if this game isn't just a Sun/Moon port, it might be something more similar to the Colosseum series. In some aspects, like the pool of available Pokémon, those titles would be easier to make today, and it would allow them to make a technical foundation for future, full-fledged Pokémon games to be based on.

Maybe I'm not giving these guys enough credit and they'll surprise us with a "complete" Pokémon game from the start, but I doubt it. I'd prefer this option to a simple HD port, though.

What Reggie said was further clarification that this is a mainline Pokemon game. If there was any doubt before, it's gone now.

And I thought this wasn't happening, so ya I did doubt it. The only reason I ever thought it might in the first place was the rumor, but we still had 20 years of historical precedent working against it, since Pokemon has never made the jump to a console. When they announced Pokken Tournament, I think everyone was pretty convinced it wasn't happening. Figured Nintendo decided Switch was doing well enough and didn't need to spend their trump card.

Whether Switch is replacing Wii U and 3DS is unknown at this point. Think it's pretty clear they want to have both Switch and 3DS, and who knows what'll come after. I used to think it was replacing both, but now I'm not so sure.

Regardless, this is huge. Pokemon is a juggernaut, and having the first core entry on console, in HD... this game alone will sell millions of systems for sure. And since Switch is hybrid, the game loses none of it's appeal. It's maybe not pocket monsters but still very much portable.

Pokemon was the one series I never played through. I always said I'd commit to playing if it came to Switch, and I will. This will be my first Pokemon.

@JaxonH Well, the Switch is a handheld console too technically, so it only makes sense. Don't know why they keep the 3DS on life support, but maybe they truely believe they cater to different market. Even though it's pretty clear that the Switch is going to replace the 3DS eventually.

@Octane
At first I thought for sure Switch was replacing both. But then they kept saying no, we want to support both, and all these awesome 3DS games keep getting announced, then Reggie was like "yup, we're greedy, and we want 3DS right alongside Switch" and I was like well, that settles that.

But eventually, it has to. 3DS can't last forever. Although it could pull an 8 year run like GameBoy. But I wonder if, come 2019, once we're 2.5 years into Switch's lifespan and it's in its prime and rockin games left and right and has 25-30 million install base, if they'll announce a new Switch mini for the pocket handheld market. Or maybe a dual screen HDS. Switch would already be on an unstoppable trajectory, and if they made it share the same OS and uses an X1 chip, games could run across both. Which would ensure it has a legendary lineup at launch.

I don't think they will change the turn based system. It's what makes Pokémon, well, Pokémon, an easy to play but hard to master. FF is a bad example considering it has one hell of a crisis, each new entry gets more rítmica than the previous one.

I hope for good 3D graphics, it not open World. We'll have either the eight gyms or something like the Alolan trials, but all linear.

Fantastic news. I can't wait for this. I played Colosseum and Gale of Darkness on the GameCube and loved both of them, I actually completed Gale of Darkness last year while the Switch was still called NX and not much was known about it.

I'm absolutely dying* for it to be an open world - seeing all of the Pokémon going about their business in their natural habitats would be an absolute game changer! ..the turn-based combat could stay - I just want to see Pokémon in the wild being Pokémon! ..and livelier NPC's! - fishermen actually catching water-type Pokémon before our eyes!

Keep the fundamentals the same (if it ain't broke, don't fix it!) - but use the extra tech to really bring everything to life like never before! ..that's my Poke-dream!

Open world, could be kept turn based or not. Customization and open world, freedom, is whats realistic. Aim it for an adult audience most of us are older since generation 1, the fan base that sold the most copies came from Red and Blue version. Sun and moon was just blah . Zelda looks nice.